Pregones Theatre

A Theatre for Social Change in the South Bronx

Eva Cristina Vásquez

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317793816
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

This is a theatre history, performance studies and U.S. Latino theatre book that examines the artistic, social political contribution of Teatro Pregones to the larger American, Latin American and Puerto Rican theatre communities.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

PUERTO RICO: A BRIEF SOCIO-POLITICAL BACKGROUND AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE

The purpose of this chapter is to present the overall sociological background of Puerto Rico, and discuss its effects on the Puerto Rican people and consequently on the creation and development of Puerto Rican theatre. The analysis presented simplifies the effects of colonialism and does not intend to be an in depth examination of the Puerto Rican social, political and cultural realities. Such an analysis would require a much broader exposition of facts evaluated in ways that go beyond the interest of this particular study. Nevertheless, we will attempt to summarize the principal aspects of the Puerto Rican socio-economic background that have made a significant contribution to the development of political theatre groups, both on the island and on the U.S. mainland.

Puerto Rico is a tropical island in the Caribbean Sea, 100 miles long by 35 miles wide, with a population of approximately four million people. When Spaniards came to the island in 1493, they found it inhabited by Araucan Indians. At first, the Indians believed that the newcomers were immortal gods. It was not until they witnessed proof of the Spaniards's mortality that they began to fight against their colonization endeavors.¹ However, in a period of about two hundred years, the Indian population was decimated by war, slavery and the highly contageous diseases brought to the island by the colonizers. As a repercussion of slavery, black slaves from Africa were introduced into the country. On account of the short period of co-existence among the three races and ample interracial coupling, Puerto Ricans became an ethnically mixed population.

For nearly tour hundred years Puerto Rico's language, religion, government and culture were ruled by the Spaniards. Despite an attempt at rebellion in 1868, an event historically known as "El Grito de Lares" (The Cry of Lares), organized by a resolute group of separatists, it was not until 1897 that the island earned its economic and political independence from Spain. That independence, conferred by virtue of the "Carta Autonómica" (The Letter of Autonomy), was blocked and frustrated by the Spanish American War following which, as agreed by Spain in the Treaty of Paris, the Philippines and Puerto Rico were ceded to the United States in 1898. From that time to the present, Puerto Rico has suffered the consequences of being one of the few remaining colonies in the world, as discussed by the United Nations. The Foraker Act of 1900 established the first civil government on the island, instituting that the governor was to be appointed by the president of the United States, without the consent of the Puerto Rican people. This kind of imposition became commonplace: for example, the concession of U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans with the Jones Act of 1917, on the eve of World War I, which allowed for the conscription of Puerto Ricans into the U. S. Army. The Puerto Rican people had not asked for a change of citizenship; indeed, many of them were opposed to it.²

Since 1898, Puerto Rico has gone through a process of swift Americanization, marked by rapid changes in political, economic and social structures, which in turn have had vast consequences for the Puerto Rican people. Contradiction and a sense of torn allegiances stand at the core of the Puerto Rican way of life. An example of Such major contradiction is the language policy in Puerto Rico. After the arrival of North American troops in 1898, one of the most striking consequences was the abrupt imposition of English as the first language of instruction in public schools. Spanish was subordinated to second place, in a country where the majority of people were native Spanish speakers. This contradictory situation prevailed from 1898 until 1948 and prompted numerous young students to drop out of the school system. Moreover, native Spanish speakers not properly trained to teach in English instructed those who did remain in school. Therefore, despite the immersion of Puerto Rican children in an English language educational system, Puerto Ricans did not become bilingual. Rather than empowerment through bilingualism, many islanders saw the imposition of English as a tool of repression. It was not until the 1949-50 academic year that Spanish was declared by law the principal vehicle of instruction in public schools (Berríos Martínez, pp. 67-68). Furthermore, it was not until four decades later, during the summer of 1991, that Spanish became the official language of the island.

By the time Spanish was reestablished in 1950 as the main language of public school education, the process of transculturation was already quite advanced. Even today, from the early stages of education, Puerto Rican children are trained to recognize important figures and events in American history, while Puerto Rican national heroes remain unknown (Rubén Berríos Martínez, p. 78). This has impeded many islanders from experiencing pride in their strength as a community, thus becoming passive witnesses of their own colonization. This "passive" attitude has created in many cases a historical gap fostering a state of collective amnesia, which in turn helps to define Puerto Ricans as colonized people. In his seminal text, The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi draws a picture of a colonized person:

We should add that he draws less and less from his past. The colonizer never recognized that he had one; everyone knows that the commoner whose origins are unknown has no history. Let us ask the colonized himself: who are his folk heroes? his great popular leaders? his sages? At most, he may be able to give us a few names, in complete disorder, and fewer and fewer as one goes down the generations. The colonized seems condemned to lose his memory.³

In view of Memmi's observation, it is congruent that the history of Puerto Rico is taught only at the high school level. In only one semester, or one school year in the most fortunate cases, young people have to rush through learning what should have been instructed during their formative years. At the college level, a course devoted exclusively to Puerto Rican history is a core requirement only for students of the Humanities. It becomes clear then that the history of Puerto Rico is treated as a specialized course for islanders (Berríos Martínez, p. 78).

The most acute consequences of colonization that the islanders have to face are not necessarily those concerning education, citizenship or language. It could be argued that the presence of the United States on the island informs practically all main aspects of the Puerto Rican way of life. For instance, among the powers the U.S. Congress has over Puerto Rico, Rubén Berríos lists:

1. Power over military service.
2. Power over forced land expropriation.
3. Power over the declaration of war.
4. Power over tariffs and customs taxes.
5. Power over foreign relations,
6. Power over currency.
7. Power over navigation and freights.
8. Power over aviation and freights.
9. Power over aerial space.
10. Power over external communications.
11. Power over nationality and citizenship.
12. Power over bankruptcy.
13. Power over emigration and immigration. (Berríos Martínez, pp. 67-68 )⁴

All these powers, clearly designating the Puerto Rican people as colonized, are masked under the formula of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Estado Libre Asociado), which since 1952 has supported and shaped this political and economic ambivalence.

Following the occupation of the island by the United States, agricultural policy was abruptly reversed. With the ultimate goal of defending North American economic interests, sugar cane replaced coffee as the main crop cultivated on the island. Because of this sudden shift in the economy, Puerto Rican agricultural workers began a massive migration from the mountains at the center of the island headed for the coasts, the focal points of the development of the sugar cane industry. During that time, Puerto Rico was one of the poorest countries in Latin America, plagued with economic problems and high rates of infant mortality, unemployment, hunger and disease. The development of a sugar cane industry did not alleviate the situation as expected. Puerto Rican sugar cane workers received extremely low salaries, their employment was temporary and the capital earned by North American companies was not reinvested in the island. In addition, sugar cane agriculture became industrialized. When Luis Muñoz Marín became the first elected Puerto Rican governor in 1948, and father of the Es tado Libre Asociado (ELA), the industrialization process was extended. The formula of the ELA, or Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, brought about drastic political, Social and economic changes. Although these changes had been operating since the island became a U.S. territory, it was with the establishment of the ELA in 1952 that they were more rapidly implemented. If it is true that the abrupt shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy had been transforming Puerto Rico since the 1940s, it was not until the fifties that these changes were institutionalized by the economic plan known as Operation Boot Strap (Operación Manos a la Obra). This plan was designed to attract foreign capital investment to the island and to fulfill the goals of developing the economy while expanding the job market.

The economic strategy envisioned by Governor Muñoz Marín and his advisors prompted the investment of foreign (mainly North American) capital by providing economic incentives such as: tax exemptions, low wages and subsidized utility services. Due to a lack of vision, the development of agriculture, which at this point depended almost solely on sugar cane production, suffered the consequences of foreign competition and essentially disappeared from the island. Meanwhile, the Puerto Rican government's industrial plan to create employment based on foreign capital investment failed because it benefited only foreign interests. Such industrialization, after all, required imported modern machinery and used fewer Puerto Rican human resources. Worst of all, since the development of agriculture was no longer an alternative, there was no employment for former sugar cane workers. People who had moved en masse from the countryside to the coast during the industrialization and development of the sugar cane industry found themselves moving again, this time from Puerto Rico to the United States, in an attempt to cope with the existing economic crisis. What had begun as an enchanted dream, ended up in an economic chaos that has extended to the present, causing the period from 1940 to 1970 to be accurately labeled the years of the great Puerto Rican migration.

If the economic crisis created by the commonwealth's economic plan served to separate the Puerto Rican people between those who left arid those who stayed, the lack of political definition masked by the commonwealth formula has served to further divide Puerto Ricans. Throughout the history of politics and political parties in Puerto Rico, which dates back to the nineteenth century, there have been three major ideological tendencies: the liberals, the conservatives and the separatists. These tendencies have manifested themselves in a variety of political movements:

The liberals have been called reformists, autonomists, unionists and populars. The conservatives have been called unconditionals, republicans, statesmen and progressive, while the separatists have been called independents and nationalists. These names correspond to the main political parties and movements. Tens of parties [...] support the three fundamental ideological principles in Puerto Rico.⁵

Ar present, those three tendencies are endorsed by the three leading political parties on the island: the Popular Democratic Party, which supports the commonwealth formula, the New Progressive Party, promoting its ideology of annexation, and the Puerto Rican Independence Party, with separatism from the United States as its ultimate goal.

Political party affiliations have often threatened some aspect of the Puerto Rican way of life. Political fanaticism has turned, for example, into civil violence, despair and confusion, only reinforcing the need for a radical redefinition of political status:

Contradictions abound in Puerto Rico's present status. How can it be that a citizen of the United States, as every Puerto Rican resident is, cannot vote for the president of the United States? Yet, by moving to the mainland—which any Puerto Rican has the unfettered legal right to do—that same individual may vote for president. Why is a male Puerto Rican required to register for the draft of the U.S. Army? And if Puerto Rican residents may not vote for president, isn't it hard to understand why they may vote in the Republican and Democratic Party primaries for the selection of a presidential candidate for whom they cannot vote in the general election?⁶

These contradictions define the essence of the Puerto Rican sense of identity, both in the island and in the United States. Politics, along with language, economy and education, are essential elements in the formation of vital concepts such as identity, self-image, a sense of nationhood and a sense of freedom. In the case of the Puerto Rican people, these concepts have been crippled in many ways by a strong attempt at Americanization through mass media, music and language. Later in this study it will be seen and understood how the search for a definition and redefinition of a Puerto Rican identity is essential to the development of Puerto Rican theatre.

Many elements have to be taken into consideration concerning the Puerto Rican self-image. Firstly, there has been a historic belittling of this image. For example, a confusion of the original island inhabitants' (Araucan Indians) pacifism with passivity has been perpetuated throughout history. Since education plays an essential role in the development of positive or negative self-esteem, many Puerto Rican children have been mistakenly taught that their nature as Puerto Ricans includes being passive, lazy, dependent and hospitable people. In a study concerning the self-image of the Puerto Ricans in the passive-aggressive dimension, Puerto Rican psychologist Alba Nydia Rivera concludes:

Within the context of the educational system we can point out two important aspects: in the first place, one could conclude from the result, that the educational system has been successful in the propagation of the. image of the Puerto Rican as docile, since the students manifest having such a perception, One could also adduce the fact that the present educational system assigns the student a passive role in which s/he listens and patiently learns what the professor says while the professor presents him/herself as the absolute authority of knowledge. In view of these results we could predict that in order to create a collective perception of strength and courage, we need to place individuals in work situations. Therefore, it would be logical to think that maintaining a high unemployment rate breeds perceptions of passivity, docility and dependency.⁷

Nevertheless, solely by changing this attitude at a school level the problem of poor self-image is not solved. There are many other factors working against a positive collective perception of Puerto Ricans. Among those factors is the reinforcement by mass media of negative stereotypical depictions of Puerto Ricans. In television programs and movies, Puerto Ricans are portrayed as criminals, alcoholics and drug abusers, in addition to unemployed, underemployed, uneducated or dependen...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: A Brief History of Teatro Pregones
• Chapter 3: Defining a Group Methodology
• Chapter 4: Reimaging Puerto Rican Theatre on the Mainland
• Chapter 5: Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Interview with Rosalba Rolón, Artistic Director of Teatro Pregones. (Spanish)
• Appendix 2: Interview with Alvan Colón-Lespier, Associate Director of Teatro Pregones. (Spanish)
• Appendix 3: Interview with Jorge Merced, Artistic Director of Teatro Pregones. (Spanish)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index